Last Night
by AnonymousTipster
Summary: When they wake up with no memory of the previous day, how will Eric Beale and Nell Jones figure out what happened last night? Rated T for language.
1. Sunlight

**Hey, this is my first ever fanfic, so please review! Hope you like it...**

Sunlight filtered into the room, gliding across the floorboards and slipping through the cracks onto the fresh sand beneath. Papers strewn all around turned from a shadow-covered grey to golden as it hit them. It crept slowly up the bedpost as the sun rose, finally flowing onto a woman's face and causing her eyes to open.

She shuffled slightly as she woke, stretching in the warm morning air. The sheets surrounding her crinkled as she moved. Smiling, she pulled them up around her neck and tucked herself back in beneath them. Only when her hand brushed against something by her waist did she notice the arms wrapped around her, gentle and still.

She lifted her head slowly and glanced over her shoulder, sleepily looking at the other human in the bed with her. Her eyes were still half-closed, but when the information of the face she had seen reached her brain, she opened them wide and blinked in an attempt to refocus her vision. It couldn't be…

"Eric?"

His blue eyes casually flickered open. His gaze slid down to meet hers.

"Nell…"

His eyelids closed again and he adjusted his position a little before laying his head down on the pillow again. It was still too early for his mind to process what he had seen.

Nell's eyes widened.

"_Eric._"

He opened his eyes again. He was beginning to truly wake now. He leaned backwards and blinked, looking again at her face.

"Wait, Nell?"

They stared at each other for a moment. Their gazes met again. The looks on their faces slowly changed from confusion to shock as they each realised what was happening.

"Oh my -"

They instantly sprang apart, rolling to opposite sides of the bed. Both of their jaws dropped. They pushed themselves up on the mattress and gaped at each other for two whole minutes before Nell spoke.

"Eric… Where are we?"

The blonde man recovered a few seconds after she did, then studied the room quickly.

"Um… I think this is my house."

Her breathing increased rapidly.

"Why the hell are we in your house?"

Eric stuttered, turning completely pale. "I… I don't know."

"And _why_ can't I remember anything!"

His eyes became wider than hers.

"I c-c-can't remember an-anything either..."

They focused on each other once more before both coming out with the only words they could think of to describe the very, very awkward situation.

"Holy crap!"

**Review please?**


	2. Stares

**Thanks for all of the reviews so far! I'm glad you like it!**

"Crap crap crap. Holy frickin' crap."

Nell was sat on the side of the bed, repeatedly cursing and running her fingers through her hair.

"Damn…"

Eric was still pale from shock. He tried to pull himself together slightly and reached for his glasses from the nightstand, fumbling to put them on.

She kept twisting her fingers through the flicks in her fringe. It was just something she did when she was nervous – or used to do. The last time she had felt as though she needed to do it was in her first day of high school. Urgh, it always left her looking like a hedgehog… She stopped and pushed the red, now curled strands behind her ear, then returned to swearing intensely at herself.

Eric pushed the bridge of his glasses back slightly so that they wouldn't fall down his face. He blinked to focus through the corrective lenses, then looked back up at Nell. His face went white for a second time when he saw what had been hidden behind the hair she had just moved.

"Oh my god, Nell, your head…"

"Huh?"

She snapped back to reality and turned to face him again.

"What did you say?"

"Y-your head…"

Confused, she moved her fingers to the left of the spot where she had been twisting her hair. Feeling something sticky, she instinctively yanked her hand away and looked down at her palm.

"Oh my god."

Her fingertips were covered in blood.

"Freaking hell!"

Eric grabbed some tissues from the nightstand instantly and began to lean towards her.

"Are you alright?"

She stared at the red substance for a few moments before she realised he was speaking to her again.

_*Answer him, idiot.*_

"Uh, yeah… I think it's just… just a scratch."

He glared at her over the rim of his glasses.

"Let me see."

"Eric, I'm fine, really…"

"Nell."

The same glare.

She bit her lip, then shifted forwards again slightly. He began dabbing the blood with a tissue. Wincing a bit, she closed her eyes.

*_That stings…*_

She tried to think of something else to get her mind off of the pain. Maybe she should try to remember last night…

How could it be that both of them didn't remember anything? Either they were drugged, had way too much to drink or something else happened to make them forget…

"Oh god Nell... You should really get that checked out."

_*Damn. Reality.*_

She opened her bright green eyes. Eric looked genuinely concerned about the wound. She began to nod in agreement to his recommendation, but as her head tilted downwards something caught her attention.

"Oh my god."

"What?"

_*Crap.*_

"Err… You're not wearing a shirt."

He turned completely red and grabbed the sheets, pulling them up to cover it.

"Umm…"

_*This is awkward…*_

"Erm…"

There was a loud banging on the door.

Eric's jaw dropped.

"Freaking hell."

"Eric, we're coming in…"

Nell went from a bright shade of red to white. She knew that voice. Both of them did.

"Is that Callen?"

The following footsteps almost confirmed it.

The techs froze.

The door opened.

Their eyes met.

The explaining started.

**Please review! I like getting your feedback.**


	3. Surprise

**Sorry that this chapter is a little short, the next one will be longer, I promise! Please review!**

Callen wasn't alone when he opened the door.

His partner, Sam Hanna walked in after him.

Both of them stopped almost straight away upon noticing Nell in the room. They'd obviously been expecting to find Eric, but Nell…

"Errr… Are we… interrupting something?"

The two techs were both redder than roses and clearly extremely embarrassed. There was a combined look of shock, horror, confusion and awkwardness in their faces.

This time it was Eric who recovered first.

"Before you say it, this isn't what it looks like."

"Oh really?" replied Sam, raising one eyebrow.

"Because it looks to me like you two are both sat in the same house."

"In the same bed."

"At the same time."

"And Eric isn't wearing a shirt."

Eric pulled up the sheets even more, impossibly seeming to go more red than he already was.

Callen smiled at his partner, then Nell's head wound caught his eye.

"Hold on, are you alright?"

"Oh, er, yeah. It just looks worse, really…"

Sam shot another look to Callen, this time more… worried.

"What happened?"

Eric and Nell exchanged their own glances before turning to the others and replying in unison.

"We don't remember."

Callen's eyes narrowed.

"Neither of you remember how Nell got that?"

They shook their heads.

"I don't even know how we ended up here…" admitted Eric.

"Me either."

It was Sam's turn to question them.

"What's the last thing you remember? Were you with someone?"

Nell bit her lip again. She did that when she was concentrating, Eric had noticed it. Shit, he should've been responding to that, but he had blanked out…

_*Dude, come on…*_

Luckily for Eric, she responded for him.

"We were playing Mario Kart… in OPS."

"With?"

"Deeks and Kensi. We were gonna ask you, but you left, and…"

"Save it Nell." said Sam, heading for the door. "Get cleaned up and meet us outside in 10 minutes."

The techs nodded and had begun to move when Callen spun around.

"Oh, Eric…"

He lifted his head, still a little spaced out.

"I think your shirt's in that fishbowl."

Seeing that the agent was right, he fell back and smacked his head against the backboard on the bed.

Nell winced at him sympathetically, trying to keep a straight face as the other two left, then turned into the bathroom.

She had to smile a little though – only Eric could survive a night he couldn't remember scratch free, then injure himself the morning after.

It was just like him.

**Please review! Feedback is very helpful and has all been great so far!**


	4. Soft Spot

**Hey, thanks for all of the reviews on my last few entries! I wasn't really sure about writing fan-fiction at first, but now I'm glad I did. Anyway, I'm writing the fifth chapter of this story at the moment, so it should be up soon, but I just wanted to get this one on here first and give you all a chance to read it. Hope you enjoy it!**

After he had grabbed a quick shower and she had covered the head wound with make-up, the techies fast-walked outside and into Sam's Challenger.

"And the lovebirds are back…"

"Sam…" There was a note of warning in Nell's voice, like the voice Hetty used whenever they were all about to get in trouble.

"Just shut up…" said Eric, using a similar tone to a lesser extent.

The Navy SEAL laughed and started up the engine.

It was extremely warm outside, but the air-con was on in the car so they quickly cooled. Nell turned her head out of the window and looked at the surroundings. She'd never been to this part of LA before – or not that she could remember.

"So, can we just get the details of the stuff you do remember before we get back?"

"Yeah. Like I said, we were up in Ops…"

"playing Mario Kart…"

"with Kensi and Deeks."

They were finishing each other's sentences again now. Callen and Sam exchanged another look at this, but decided they had wound them up enough already.

"But then we must have gone somewhere…"

"because I remember us getting our coats…"

"but nothing after that." finished Eric.

"Hold on" said Callen. "What about before that? Did you mention to Kensi or Deeks where you were going?"

The blond tech operator put his hand to his head and tried hard to remember. It was really hazy, and all he did was succeed in giving himself a headache.

"Sorry. I dunno."

"Nell?"

"Nada."

"Alright, we can ask those two when we get inside."

The car pulled up to the operations base pretty quickly. It had only been a short drive, so it didn't take long, but driving at least ten miles per hour over the limit probably hadn't hurt their speed.

The team walked in through the doors and found themselves face to face with their boss, who had been making tea in the corner.

"Hetty, we got him."

"And her."

"Miss Jones?" Hetty sounded slightly surprised at the sight of Nell. "What are you doing here? This is not a scheduled work day…"

"Um, it's sort of hard to explain…"

"And Mister Beale… Why did I need to send two agents to roust you from your home two hours after you were due to start your shift?"

"Erm, it's a bit of a long story…"

The evasiveness of her tech operator and intelligence analyst's answers worried her.

"Explain it to me."

The pair exchanged yet another glance before both turning to Callen and Sam for assistance.

"They don't remember anything since leaving work yesterday, Hetty."

They faced their boss again. Her face wore the same combination of shock and confusion they had seen the two agents wearing earlier, but about two times weaker.

"Nothing?"

"Well, we were in Ops with Kensi and Deeks, then…"

Eric trailed off. Nell bit her lip again and they both began studying the floorboards as if they were suddenly extremely interesting.

It was clear to the operations manager that something about the rest of their story was bothering them, so she left it. If it was important, they would reveal it to her. If not, well, it wasn't important. Besides, the other two agents looked as if they could better explain this mess.

"Nell, you need to tell her about the cut."

"Oh, erm, yeah, uh, Hetty, I found this earlier…"

Nell lifted her fringe to reveal the still visible wound. The make-up had made it appear less serious, thank god, but it was worrying nonetheless.

"And you have no memory of who did this?"

"No…"

"Mhm. Miss Jones, Mister Beale, go and wait in Ops. I will send Miss Blye and Mister Deeks in for you."

Eric looked up from the floor and Nell smoothed her fringe back down before both heading up the stairs.

"Mister Hanna, Mister Callen, a word."

The agents took a large step forward to make sure they were out of earshot. They knew Hetty had a soft spot for both of her techs and had a feeling what she had to say wasn't going to be too polite.

"What do you need us to do?" asked Sam, glancing over his shoulder.

Henrietta Lange looked up at the SEAL calmly and set down her cup of tea.

"Find the bastard who did this."

**Hetty doesn't like people who injure her team - whoever it is definitely has something bad coming their way! Like I always say, please leave me a review! Thanks!**


	5. Screens

**It's here! I've now caught myself up with my uploading, so you'll have to forgive me if there's a long gap between this one and my next upload. Hopefully it won't be too long! You probably know what I'm going to say by now, but I feel like I should thank you for the reviews anyway. Please keep them coming, your feedback makes me keep writing! Yay!**

Eric and Nell both sat in Ops, looking a little nervously at their blank screens without any task to perform. Usually by this time, they would be swept off of their feet with demands from the team. 'Find the address for him…' or 'get a name for her!'… It was strange to be in the room with nothing to do but wait.

Suddenly, Eric span around to face his computer. His unexpected move made Nell jump slightly. The silence was beginning to get on his nerves, so he pulled up a window on the big screen then turned to face his partner.

"Fancy a quick round of Wii Sports before we start explaining again?"

She smiled and stood up.

"Sounds like just what I need…" she sighed.

He pressed the A button to display the start-up screen, then noticed the blinking inbox icon in the bottom right corner. Clicking on it, a message popped up. He opened it and they both read.

_MARIO KART 'WII WATCH' UPDATE_

_Want to see some of your highlights from your last play session? Press here now to see the best bits, courtesy of Wii Watch!_

"Wii Watch?"

Eric tapped the small, round camera on the top of the humming white box.

"It films you while you play. I got it from a friend in Nintendo, it's coming out next month or something…"

Nell leaned on the table in the centre of the room, her eyes growing wider with curiosity.

"Was it filming last night?"

Eric realised what this meant.

"Yeah! It could tell us what we did…"

"Or where we were going." added Nell with a sideways glance.

He double clicked on the 'play' button and the video filled the screen. Nell, Kensi, Deeks and himself were all standing in front of the camera, holding the white plastic wheels and laughing at each other.

"I am totally gonna kick your ass Kensi!"

"As if! I have a blue shell and I'm not afraid to use it!"

"Ohh! Unsportsmanlike conduct, come on!"

Eric couldn't help but smile. It was obvious by the way they acted that Kensi and Deeks had a thing for each other. How couldn't they both see it? It was practically staring right at them…

"Woohoo! First place!"

On the screen, the detective did a victory dance while Kensi groaned, trailing over the line in 5th.

"Aww c'mon…"

"Hey, at least you did better than Eric…"

"Whoa, I won on Rainbow Road." he said defensively. "This just isn't my strongest course, that's all…"

Everybody else laughed and started imitating the blonde tech, while he displayed a clear, if somewhat transparent, look of annoyance to them all.

Nell chuckled at the screen too, before turning to Eric with a smirk on her face.

"I told you I would beat you."

"I don't remember that…" he replied, raising his eyebrows.

"I'm sure it happened!" she laughed.

"Nah… I don't buy it."

She looked at him with mock anger and outrage before turning back to watch the video again. He smiled again then started watching again too. Yeah, Kensi and Deeks really needed to pick up the clues…

"Hold up Eric, can you stop it there?"

He paused the movie.

"What? Did you spot something?"

"Yeah, rewind it. Just a little."

Looking down at the controller, he skipped the video backwards a few frames. Slowly, a piece of data flipped back up onto one of the screens behind their heads.

"There!"

"What does it say?"

"I don't know… We need to sharpen that."

"I'll set up the image software. It sounds like Kensi and Deeks are almost here."

The female agent and the male detective could be heard arguing from all the way in the bullpen.

Nell rolled her eyes to Eric, who raised his eyebrows before minimizing the software he was running. Kensi and Deeks weren't exactly posing for a photo in the frame containing the data – she was elbowing him and he had his tongue stuck out of the side of his mouth in concentration. It was probably best for them both not to see their partner like this, otherwise they would never stop bringing it up.

They both swivelled round in their chairs and quickly hid the controllers in case Hetty decided to accompany the pair to the meeting. They could do without being told off by their boss today… they were in enough trouble all by themselves!

**I've also realised my chapters seem to be getting longer when I finally do write them... Please review?**


	6. Silence

**Thank you all so much for your great reviews! I now actually have two weeks almost completely free, so this is the perfect time to be working on my story! I'm gonna aim to post at least a chapter per day. That sounds easy right now, but I'm sure that by about Day 3 I'll be regretting that. Anyway, I hope you like my latest addition - it involves Kensi, Deeks and awkward silences... Enjoy!**

The agent and the detective walked into the Ops centre a few minutes after the techs had heard them coming. As they entered the room, Kensi was punching Deeks on the arm.

"I do not sound like that!"

Deeks clutched his arm in fake pain before replying with an actually half-decent imitation of her voice.

"_Yes, you do…"_

She punched him again.

"Deeks!"

"Ow, ow, alright, I'll stop."

"Thank you…"

"If I don't, I'll probably lose an arm."

Kensi shot him an evil glare before turning to the others in the room, who up until this point had been sat in their chairs trying not to laugh at Deeks' impression.

"Hetty told us you wanted to talk?"

"Yeah. She wouldn't say what about though…" said the blonde detective, his expression changing from a grin to a confused and slightly concerned face.

Eric and Nell exchanged glances, then took a deep breath and explained what had happened – or what they remembered of it. Kensi and Deeks were actually quiet for once, listening to their story. When the techs were done, the pair sat there with their jaws almost on the floor.

Sharing another look, Eric and Nell both swiftly turned their eyes to the ground again. They had done this so many times before that they could almost draw the entire floor of their headquarters from memory, and that wasn't a good thing.

The silence was becoming a little awkward, so Nell lifted her head and cleared her throat.

Deeks slowly closed his mouth and let out a low whistle instead.

"Oooh… That's… Erm…"

The redhead lifted her hand to her head to begin twisting her fringe again, before remembering what had happened last time she did that.

"Yeah… erm…"

Kensi returned to reality again and began to cope with the shock by asking questions.

"So… after you left, you don't remember anything?"

Eric finally stopped his intense staring at the floor and started fiddling with his fingers instead. Nell noticed that he did that a lot when things got kind of nerve wracking. Crap, she had been supposed to answer Kensi's question, but she had got caught up in her thoughts again…

Eric answered for her though, saving her from even more embarrassment today.

"No… Did we mention anything about what we were doing to you?"

"Nah… I mean, not when I was listening." replied Deeks. The others laughed, but he had only been half joking…

"Maybe Vance would know." suggested Kensi.

This got Nell's attention.

"Vance? Why would he know?"

The agent's eyes widened a little. She had said this automatically, forgetting about the tech team's memory loss. She opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a beep from the monitor to her left.

Eric swivelled once again on his chair and dragged up the image software. Deeks saw the photo for a moment and was about to say something, but the tech operator zoomed into the sharpened area almost instantly. Instead, the detective merely raised his eyebrows before focusing back on the screen.

The message was now clear and readable, thanks to the program. Kensi of course knew what it would say, but Deeks hadn't been paying much attention to it the first time around. He had been more concerned with how fast he could make his lap time on DK Jungle than with a little bleep and a pop-up in the corner. But now, he saw what the words said and then understood why they had left soon after the end of this race.

VIDEO CALL REQUEST FROM L VANCE 842.

ACCEPT CALL?

Y OR N.

Kensi swallowed before turning to the techs.

"That would probably be why."

Nell and Eric were both staring at the screen. This didn't make any sense! Why would the director of NCIS be requesting a video chat with them? Nell had only met him once or twice, and the last time Eric had seen him was when he tried (and failed) to call him Leon again. It just wasn't quite right…

"So we'll need to contact_ Vance_ to find out where you went?"

Deeks' question made them both gulp again.

"He isn't going to be happy, is he?" asked Nell nervously.

"What makes you say that?" said Kensi.

"Well, he called us, which he never does, probably told us some secret info, since he didn't send it though you guys, left us to deal with it and now we have no idea what happened!" blurted out Eric, all of the information his brain was trying to process simply firing itself out as one long sentence. He was fiddling with his fingers now more than ever.

"Whoa, whoa, this isn't your fault, guys…" said Kensi, realising how agitated both of them were due to this new information.

"But…"

"No buts, Eric. We're gonna find out what happened, all of us. Everything will be fine, okay?"

Eric lifted his gaze up towards the ceiling and chuckled a little.

"Wait, you're laughing? You find this… funny?"

Kensi was obviously now confused, something none of them got to see very often.

"No, no, you just… You kind of sound like Nate right now." he explained as he turned to face her.

This made the agent smile. She sounded nothing like the team's giant of a psychologist (at least not to her own ears) but it seemed to have done the trick in calming Eric down. She looked over at Nell, but the redhead seemed to be laughing a little as well.

"Really? Deeks, let's go. Nell's already got a head injury and I wouldn't want to have to get Eric checked out too…"

The blonde tech bit his lip and smiled as she dragged Deeks out of Ops by his arm. It might be frustrating to watch them constantly flirt and miss the obvious signs, but the detective and his partner definitely knew how to cheer them up. Plus at least they had a lead now. Last night wasn't turning out to be a complete mystery…

"Eric, are you okay?"

The gentle voice made Eric wake from his thoughts again. He spun around to face his partner and gave her one of his trademark half-smiles.

"Yeah, you?"

She grinned in reply, then sat back down in her chair.

"We should start trying to call Vance…"

Eric sighed a little, but then he sat next to her and cracked his knuckles.

"Let's get to work, Rockstar."

They both laughed, then as the familiar hum of the machines began, fingers against keys became the only noise for the next hour. But oh boy, were they both happy to hear it again…

**I've been wanting to put the super-cute nickname in for about the last four chapters, and I finally found a place it could fit. Yay! Thanks for reading, please review for me!**


	7. Street Security

**Here you go! A few of you have been asking for some more answers, and I can tell you that there are some coming up very soon! It will all become clear (hopefully) so don't worry! Please review!**

"So do you think they've talked about it?"

Sam stopped tapping his feet to the radio. He and Callen were on their way back their operations base to meet with a street vendor outside. Hetty had rung them on their breaks and told them that the saleswoman always had a security camera running at her stall, so they had asked for the food they had ordered to be put into doggy bags and headed straight for his Challenger. The former SEAL was doing his usual trick of driving over the limit and didn't take his eyes off of the road, but he raised an eyebrow at his partner's nondescript question.

"Do I think who've talked about what?"

Callen smirked and turned down the improvised jazz music – if you could call it music.

"Eric and Nell. About what happened."

"Obviously. They've been explaining it to everyone all day."

"Not like that. To each other."

"G, three word sentences aren't an explanation…"

He smirked again at that.

"They were holding something back from everyone, Sam. Something they didn't want to talk about in front of us. So what do you think it was?"

Sam had noticed that the techs had both been slightly evasive when asked for more details about where exactly in the room they woke up. The team had got them to admit that they were both in the room that morning – he and Callen had seen that so they couldn't deny it – but they weren't giving up anything else. Eric and Nell could keep secrets as well as any of his other co-workers, so he had let it go when they had begun to become tight-lipped.

"Alright, I think it's something about where they woke up."

"I'm not the only one then." said Callen, raising his eyebrows too.

"If they don't wanna tell us G, they won't. And it's clear that they don't."

"So we'll just have to wait until they do."

"You can't just leave it, can you?" asked Sam, with exaggerated exhaustion.

Callen laughed, before announcing that they had arrived and opening the doors of the Challenger. Both agents stepped out of the car and looked around for the woman their boss had mentioned to them in her phone call. They spotted her selling a polka-dot scarf to a passer-by next to a fountain and waited until she was finished before walking over to her. After all, they needed her to co-operate with them if they wanted her security tapes…

"Hey there fellas, what can I do for ya'll?"

She spoke with a definite Texan accent and had long, blonde hair, tied in a ponytail.

"Excuse me, we work for NCIS." said Callen, displaying his badge to her. "We need to see your security video from last night."

The woman's face turned from a friendly grin to one of worry.

"Why? Did something terrible happen here?"

"We don't think so." answered Sam. "We just need to get a copy of your tapes to make sure."

"Of course! I'll get them for you right away."

"Thanks." nodded Callen.

She was back within half a minute, bearing a thin, white disc, labelled with the date.

"Here's everything from last night, agents."

"Thank you again, Miss…"

"Oh, Daphne. Call me Daphne."

"Thanks, Daphne." replied Sam with a reassuring smile. "You've been a big help. Bye."

"Bye now! Have a good day!"

As they climbed back into the Challenger, Callen sent a sideways look to his partner.

"I think Daphne likes you."

"I have a wife, G. And a kid, in case you forgot."

"She doesn't know that."

Sam shook his head and laughed as he started the engine.

"You really, really can't just leave it alone…"

**This isn't as long as my others, just a bit of Callen and Sam stuff. Thanks for all the reviews, please keep them coming!**


	8. Spontaneous

**Thanks for all of the reviews! This chapter gives a bit more information. Enjoy!**

Hetty sat down at her desk with a cup of her favourite tea and switched on her monitor. After calling in several favours, including something to do with fishnet tights and Baltimore, she had managed to get a hold of the security footage from inside of the building on that night. She obviously had access to all of the bullpen footage instantly, but the tapes from Ops and just outside of the door were all sent offsite. By the time she had got hold of them, Vance's conversation and anything before it had been erased completely. There was some left afterwards though, so she had asked for it to be sent to her straight away. It seemed like they would have to ask the director himself what had happened, but he was currently in an extremely important meeting that even her favours and contacts couldn't delay. He would be done by tomorrow and they would simply have to make do with the tapes they had until then.

The computer powered up and Hetty slipped the disc into the slot on the side. She was alone in the operations base at the moment, since Sam and Callen were driving back with more tapes from a street vendor and Kensi and Deeks were both out on their breaks. Eric and Nell were still both in Ops together, and by the sound of things they had begun playing another one of their video games. They were supposed to be tracing their steps using Kaleidoscope, but nevertheless Hetty had decided to leave them be. Her analyst and tech operator hadn't been making much progress and deserved a short break anyway. She would show them this footage later, if it turned out to be of any use at all.

The video popped up onto the screen and Hetty expanded it to full size. Pressing the play button, she focused her mind on the security feed and watched it, silently making notes and keeping an eye out for the unusual.

The footage cut it just as the redheaded intelligence analyst was logging out of the system. Eric wasn't in the room, but as Nell finished shutting down the computers he appeared in the doorway, holding two jackets.

"I got your coat." he said, handing it to her.

"Thanks…" she grinned, sliding her arms into the sleeves.

"Oh, by the way, did you get your car fixed?"

Eric's face fell at his partner's question.

"Urgh, no… I took it in, but the guy said it would be at least a week. I'd forgotten about that…"

He turned his head to the window and realised that it was hammering it down. Sleet was pounding against the glass like rocks.

Nell winced at him sympathetically and he groaned.

"Guess I'm walking in that then…"

"You don't have to you know…"

Now he was confused. He turned to face his partner, who looked a little more nervous than usual.

"What do you mean?"

"I could drive you. Y'know, if you want…"

He went from confusion to slight shock. She was actually offering?

"Really?"

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

He grinned and gave her a spontaneous hug. Her heart raced a little. As he pulled back, she smiled.

"Nell Jones, you are a lifesaver. Thanks!"

"No problem, it's fine… I'll just, um, grab my keys." she replied, heading quickly for the door. She hadn't been expecting him to hug her like that – not that it wasn't a good thing, just… unexpected.

Eric waited for a second, watching her leave and wondering if he had gone too far. He bit his lip and followed her out of the room.

Hetty paused the feed and switched to the footage from outside without stopping. Luckily, Nell's car was parked just outside the door, so everything they did was caught on camera. Unfortunately, they didn't mention anything to do with their video call with the director.

The analyst and the tech operator walked to the Mini and she unlocked the doors. Eric gave her another half-smile as he climbed inside. She paused for a moment before slipping into the driver's seat.

He looked over at her when she turned the keys in the ignition.

"Thanks again for driving me."

"Like I said, no problem. Just tell me where to go."

"Turn left up here, then keep going until the end of the road."

Nell drove the car out of the parking lot and also out of the camera's range.

Hetty closed the software. She hadn't learned anything else about the video call, but she had certainly learned something about her team. It seemed Eric and Nell were becoming closer than she had expected. She had also learned where they had both gone after the chat. Ejecting the disc, Hetty turned towards Ops, but stopped at the sound of her tech's voices.

"Whoa, did you throw that banana?"

"Maaybe… You deserved it anyway, you red-shelled me!"

Eric's comment caused Nell voice to become outraged. He just laughed at her and kept on playing.

Hetty sighed slightly and headed up the stairs. She stopped again in the doorway, waiting for them to finish whatever level they were on.

"Yes! New record!"

"No way! You obviously cheated…."

"I wouldn't do that, would I?"

"Oh, don't get me started…"

She cleared her throat and the techs trailed away. They spun to face her slowly, then Eric opened his mouth to explain.

"Don't bother, Mister Beale. I understand that today had been very stressful and I will 'let it slide', just this once."

Eric closed his mouth again and Nell smiled at her.

"Thanks Hetty."

She placed the disc on the table carefully and slid it towards them.

"This is last night's footage from after your talk with the director. Please run Miss Jones' car through Kaleidoscope and get back to me with your results."

With that, the small woman walked calmly out of the Ops centre, leaving Eric and Nell holding the DVD. They both turned to face each other before Eric spoke.

"I actually thought she'd be more annoyed about the Mario Kart."

**Please review?**


	9. Sincere

**Hey, sorry that this chapter is late! I had some History work to do, but I still managed to write something for you guys. It's also not very long, since it was about 3 am by the time I actually got to doing this. Sorry again, the next chapter won't be as rushed!**

Sam and Callen walked into Ops at about noon, handing Eric and Nell the tapes from Daphne and then heading straight downstairs. They figured they would want to be alone while they watched them – they were obviously stressed and it seemed like they wouldn't want the two NCIS agents hanging over them.

They had been right about the stress. It was really getting to Nell. If only she could just remember… Anything could help, if she just kept trying… If it worked, this would all be over…

But it didn't work, and all she got was a headache. Eric could see her straining and wanted to say something, but he couldn't quite get the right words. He was quite frankly relieved when the agents dropped by with more tapes, since it gave him an excuse to stop her from working. She needed to take a break, but whenever he attempted to tell her that she just muttered something about focusing on this stuff first. That was making him more stressed than not being able to remember – he wanted his partner to stop worrying.

He jumped up and grabbed the tapes from the table quickly. The sudden movement startled Nell a little, making her twitch, but she hid it with a cough and turned to face the big screen. Eric slid the disc into the computer and double clicked to make the video full size.

The red Mini pulled into shot and stopped at a set of traffic lights. The audio was pretty good for a street cam and they could hear most of the conversation in the car.

"Turn left up here, then keep going until the end of the road."

"Alright."

Eric started twisting his fingers and looked over to the driver's seat.

"So, er, what are you gonna be doing this weekend?"

"Probably the same as you – reviewing that." said Nell with a sigh, gesturing to her laptop in the back.

"Oh yeah, our fun little project…"

She chuckled and glanced over at her partner.

"Why do you think he wanted us for this anyway?"

Eric had to think about that for a second, so there was a short pause before he answered.

"Well, maybe it's because he knows us. He must think we're trustworthy."

"Eric, I've only met him a couple of times, remember?"

"Alright, maybe it's because we're the most qualified."

"I don't know anything about rocket science…"

"Yeah, but you know about computer software. Besides, we're missing the obvious reason."

"What's that?"

"We're the best people for the job."

Nell laughed at that.

"Hey, maybe you, but this isn't really the kind of thing I do."

Eric raised his eyebrows.

"Why not? You might be pretty good at it."

"I doubt that."

"You should really stop putting yourself down like that." said Eric with a sigh, tilting his head to the side.

"Ha, why?"

"Because it isn't true. You're the best intelligence analyst I know, but you insist that you're bad at everything."

Nell turned and saw her partner's face. He looked sincere, but he couldn't be. No, he was just trying to make her feel better. She still blushed though, before realising the lights had been green for at least the last half of their conversation and reaching for the handbrake.

"Thanks…"

"It's true."

"But if I'm the best intelligence analyst you know, you really need to talk to the others at work."

"Oh come on…"

**Even though this is really late and pretty short, please review?**


	10. Stress

**First, let me apologise for disappearing for over a week after promising to upload every day. Sorry! Unfortunately, my computer broke and kept shutting down randomly so I didn't think it was a good idea to start typing my stories up. It's all fixed now though, so I should be back on form soon! Woo! Secondly, this chapter isn't particularly long, but it was a hard one to write. I was thinking of uploading these as separate chapters, but one didn't seem to work without the other. Alrighty, I'll stop rambling now, or my authors note will be longer than the story. Enjoy!**

Eric unlocked his door and tumbled into his house. Switching on the TV, he collapsed onto the sofa, sighing heavily. Hetty had ordered him and Nell to go home after seeing the second tape and told them that they should get some rest, or else. He didn't want to think about what his boss had meant by or else, so he flicked on a re-run of Doctor Who and tried to remember the day before instead.

He knew him and his partner had been called by the director of NCIS, and that they had been given a task that might have something to do with computers and rocket science. She had been driving him home and then… well, after that, he didn't know. Something had gone wrong and neither of them could remember a thing.

He decided to skip back a little, subconsciously avoiding the morning after. Thinking about THAT would just send his brain off on its own, and he didn't really like where those journeys tended to lead – usually to things he'd rather not face, especially not when he was stressed like this.

Suddenly, his phone buzzed and snapped him out of his thoughts. He grabbed it from the coffee table and after seeing the alert, leaped up from his seat. Eric bolted out of the door so quickly that he almost forgot to lock it behind him.

Meanwhile, Nell threw her bags to the ground. Sighing, she headed straight for the kitchen and opened her fridge.

_*Great. Empty, of course.*_

Slamming the off-white door, she started searching her cupboards instead, finally choosing a chicken Pot-Noodle and shoving it into the microwave. After the code was punched in, she leaned on the counter with her head in her hands. Why did all of this have to happen?

Her boss had ordered her and Eric home about twenty minutes earlier, but all she really wanted to do was keep working on their case. It was annoying not knowing what happened. Maybe if she just tried once more to remember…

How had she got the gash on her head? It began throbbing with pain even as she wondered, hurting more than she wanted to let the team know. Eric would insist on taking her to a hospital, and as much as the painkillers appealed to her right now, she would be better off working than waiting. She didn't even want to take this time off, but nobody could argue with Hetty.

Why did the director choose them for his project? Hell, what _was _the project? It could be the entire reason for this, it could explain everything if they knew. But _no_. They didn't know that. Because Vance couldn't spare a second away from his meeting to explain, they all had to try and figure it out for themselves.

Just as her mind began to drift to another question, the microwave bleeped and Nell was shaken out of her thoughts. She sighed and pulled the noodles out, almost dropping them in the process.

_*Now she not only had a headache but her fingers were burnt. Perfect…*_

She had barely finished running her hand under cold water when her cell phone buzzed. When she read the short message on the screen, she quickly shut off the taps and headed straight for the exit. Her meal tumbled to the ground as the door slammed, spilling over the tiles, forgotten in a frenzy of bad news…

**I not only abandon you all for a week, I leave you on a cliffhanger! Dun dun dun... Please can you review this for me? Thanks!**


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